By Rick Romano
Incumbent Congressional representatives in the 4th and 7th Districts are facing tough challengers in the Tuesday, March 19 Democratic primary.
4th District
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is the incumbent Democratic Congressional representative, having been elected in 2019 after serving on the Cook County Board, State Senate, and City Council. He holds two degrees from the University of Illinois Chicago.
Garcia serves as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its Aviation, Highways and Transit, and Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials subcommittees. He is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Equality Caucus, Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, and New Americans Caucus, and founder of the Future of Transportation Caucus.
Concerning migrants, Garcia said he is proud of City, County, and State officials for providing a welcoming environment.
“It is important not to resort to political talking points and not vilifying,” Garcia said. “A lot of this stems from the ravages of the pandemic in other countries and America is seen as a mecca.”
Garcia favors building on what he said is the $330 billion in Federal, State, and local taxes that have been paid by those immigrants who have contributed through working in the United States.
“The pathway is to provide work permits,” he said, noting there is a four-year backlog to processing asylum seekers so they can obtain them.
Another tactic, Garcia said, is to work with Mexico and other governments to ensure a more orderly process, including addressing the issue of cartels.
Fighting crime, Garcia said, depends on continuing the work of crime prevention efforts that go back to his days as a nonprofit leader and the efforts in such neighborhoods as Little Village.
“We need a combination of things,” he said. “We need sensible gun legislation to prevent guns from coming in from other states and we need violence prevention programs, we need federally funded day care programs, youth centers, and mental health services to put young people on the right path.”
Addressing healthcare funding and affordability, Garcia said “I am proud to say that I am a supporter of Medicare for all, and I support universal health care. In the Inflation Reduction Act, we have slashed the cost of insulin for Medicare recipients and we want to do the same for everyone.”
Garcia noted Congress is working to lower the cost for other prescription drugs in an overall effort to reduce the cost of living.
“Protecting Social Security and Medicare remain priorities,” he said. “It is also important to protect reproductive rights and ultimately codify the rights to abortion freedom.”
To address education funding, Garcia supports the tuition relief measures of the Biden Administration.
“I support making junior college and all two-year institutions free of charge,” he said. “That is a way for young people to have good jobs with many career opportunities in technology, healthcare and other areas.”
Garcia supports increasing funds for teaching grants and for increasing teacher pay. In addition, he said HeadStart programs need funding in an effort to increase the opportunities for everyone “from birth to college.”
For more information, go to www.chuygarcia.house.gov.
Raymond A. Lopez has been the 15th Ward alderman since 2015, after a stint as Democratic committeeman. He attended the University of Illinois Chicago. Lopez said his previous experience as a Midway International Airport skycap taught him the people skills to serve in public office.
Regarding the migrant issue, Lopez said the Federal government needs to create “functional immigration” by securing the border, establishing quick adjudication of those coming through “the front door,” and deporting those entering “the back door.”
“We cannot allow individuals seeking asylum to get a court date ten years later,” he said, noting the criminal gang known as MS-13 formed in Southern California in the 1980s and 1990s after an influx of undocumented people came from Central and South America.
“Those who have come here legally feel they have been leapfrogged by those not here legally,” Lopez said. “We need to improve the system for them, including DACA registered and qualified.”
Addressing crime is a matter of “pushing community based, constitutionally correct policing,” not only in Chicago but in surrounding communities and all municipalities across the state, Lopez said.
“The City of Chicago receives billions of dollars to address crime, but it would be my job to connect all communities with the same resources,” he said. “There are grants and other sources to help upgrade police departments.”
Lopez opposes assault weapons. “I don’t believe weapons of war should be in the hands of civilians,” he said. “I respect the 2nd Amendment, but I have seen firsthand what these weapons can do. We have to get beyond the political points being made in Washington and address these issues.”
To solving the issue of healthcare access and affordability, he sees universal access with an emphasis on prevention as the key.
“We are seeing trips to the emergency room and calling ambulances for routine care,” Lopez said. “We should make the same level of healthcare that is available to members of Congress available to everyone. It costs money, but it is money well spent to be proactive in addressing all needs.”
Funding education should be a priority for supporting those in public and private schools, he said.
“The best way to support that is with a tax credit along with other financial aid including Pell Grants instead of loans,” he said. “I think to indiscriminately give money for students who are entering college is not the answer.”
Lopez said that, beyond traditional college, states should be “given latitude” on deciding the kind of degrees and training that would satisfy their workforce needs and then fund that appropriately. He emphasized communicating expectations to the next generation.
For more information about Lopez, go to www.raymondforcongress.com.
7th District
Nikhil Bhatia has spent his entire career as an educator in urban settings. His path to education included Teach for America and led him to classroom teaching and work as a principal. He attended night school at the University of Chicago, where he earned a master’s degree in public policy. He said his main interest was to study systemic issues that oppress many communities.
Bhatia said getting control over the southern border is key to the migrant issue.
“It’s untenable right now,” he said. “We cannot have tens of thousands of people in our cities and in our neighborhoods even though we want to treat them humanely.” He favors measures other than building a wall.
“It would be more effective to install electronic monitoring surveillance,” he said. “We have to know who is coming across. It’s not just the number of individuals coming. It’s the fentanyl and other drugs being transported. We want to treat people humanely, but we also need to protect our population.”
Bhatia noted the importance of working with Mexico and all of Central and South America to help control the migrant influx.
“In order to protect our communities here, Congress needs to address root causes and work to get aid to those countries,” Bhatia said.
To address crime, Bhatia said the focus should be on weapons, economic investment, and police support.
“Chicago has strict gun control laws, but many weapons unfortunately come from out of state,” Bhatia said. “Background checks with every gun purchase is important. We also need to ban all assault weapons. There needs to be a prohibition on AR-15s, for example. The federal government needs to get involved in buy-back programs.”
Economic investment should counter the damage done by the pandemic, he believes.
“There was a rise in crime then, and there has been a lot of hopelessness and despair coming out of that period,” he said. “We need to invest in small and large business.”
Also, with “less than 20% of homicides solved and vehicle thefts on the rise, federal resources are needed,” he said. He favors ensuring quality policing without defunding.
Bhatia sums up his approach to healthcare access and affordability in noting his support for a single payer approach and more resources for mental health services.
As for education funding, it requires focusing on the greatest benefit for a future workforce.
“We need more block grants, and we need to find more teachers to teach math and language,” Bhatia said. “We need to train the next generation in STEM careers.”
Communicating the reality of educational costs is important.
“We also have to be more transparent when it comes to the cost of higher education. We have to make parents and students aware of the importance of saving and what careers they can pursue.”
For more information about Bhatia, go to www.bhatiaforcongress.com.
Kina Collins is running to represent the 7th Congressional District for the third straight time. Collins grew up in the Austin neighborhood. In 2017, she founded the Chicago Neighborhood Alliance, which is focused on ending gun violence. In 2019, she helped form the Brand New Council, a coalition of organizations aimed at electing progressive candidates of color to the Chicago City Council. A graduate of the Chicago Public School system, Collins attended Carthage College and Louisiana State University, where she studied sociology.
Dealing with the migrant issue, Collins said, should focus on putting the right amount of resources into the effort.
“Federal funds need to go to the legal system to efficiently move people through,” she said, noting that the process also needs to identify those who should not move through the border. “I support work visas so that folks can get jobs and contribute to the tax system.”
Collins also said Democrats winning the House of Representatives would better support those efforts.
If elected, Collins plans to address institutionalized poverty and inequity “head on—not just in Illinois 7 but across the country.”
Collins believes money used to keep people in prisons instead should go to improve the community through reopening public schools the City shut down, eliminating food insecurity, and providing affordable, quality housing options.
“When we shut down those public schools, when we eviscerate mental health services, it makes it hard for people to have a standard quality of life in these neighborhoods,” she said
By recirculating the millions of dollars used to incarcerate, Collins, who has a background in gun violence prevention activism, hopes to prevent crime before it begins.
A strong supporter of the Affordable Care Act, Collins also would fight for single-payer Medicare and employer-based health care. A former national organizer for the Physicians for National Health Program, she led 20,000 physicians, medical students, and healthcare workers in the fight for universal healthcare.
Collins wants to obtain Title I funding for all public schools. She also wants to fight for a livable wage for educators.
“We are asking our educators to put their bodies, their lives, everything on the line, and we refuse to pay them a living wage. We refuse to grab their hand and pull them out of the depths of student loan debt, we are refusing to supply them with the resources that they need.”
For more information, log on to www.kinacollins.com.
Melissa Conyears-Ervin, Chicago city treasurer and a former state representative, has lived in the 7th District her whole life. She earned an undergraduate business degree from Eastern Illinois University and a master’s degree in finance from Roosevelt University. She co-founded the Democratic Women’s Caucus and volunteers as a mentor to young women. In addition to her political career, Conyears-Ervin had a 20-year business career at Allstate.
Concerning the migrant issue, Conyears-Ervin said, “We are a welcoming country, and we should be a welcoming state. The challenge is the resources. The city did not have to handle that on its own. I plan on going to DC to bring those additional resources.”
Conyears-Ervin said she looks at those needs as all encompassing, including housing and other aspects throughout the district that includes its western suburbs.
Crime levels throughout the district have been constant, she added.
“I look at the 7th and I have to ask, where are all the resources?” she said. “Nothing has changed in the years I have lived here. I don’t see a difference. There are challenges that all families have. Housing is too expensive when apartments cost $2,000 a month. Being able to save for a house like my mother did is important. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, so I can relate to all of that. I want to provide hope for the hopeless.”
She said much of this issue has to do with not having the financial resources.
“I want the rich to pay their fair share in taxes,” she said.
On healthcare access and affordability, Conyears-Ervin favors lowering the cost for everyone by capping prices on prescriptions and other healthcare costs. She favors a single-payer system and noted the nation should look to countries such as Germany and Canada to assess other ways to address costs.
“The other issue is abortion rights,” she said. ”Women are not protected everywhere, and we need more people working in DC to address that.”
Education funding should be free across the board, Conyears-Ervin said.
“Public or choice, schools should be funded so that education is free,” she said, noting that extends to all colleges. She does not draw a distinction between public and private schools.
“We are entitled to education,” she said. “Overall, education needs to be free.”
For more information about Conyears-Ervin, go to www.melissaforcongress.org.
Democrat Danny Davis has represented the 7th District since 1997 after serving as 29th Ward Alderman and Cook County Commissioner. He earned degrees in history and guidance, respectively, at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Chicago State University and holds a PhD in public administration from Cincinnati’s Union Institute and University. He serves on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and its subcommittees on Health and Work and Welfare.
Davis favors a balanced approach to the migrant issue.
Noting he represents a district with ethnic groups from all over the world, he said, “It is desirable for us to be as inclusive as possible to those who believe that they can achieve a better quality of life. There is a great deal of instability in other countries. There is the question of illegal entry, which Congress is addressing, but we know there are many who have a real connection to this country, and we need a pathway for them.”
He also pointed to regulating the number of people entering the U.S. by working with other countries and identifying those with criminal records and mental disorders.
“You can’t just have the gates open,” he said.
Preventing crime begins with dealing with poverty, Davis said.
“We had a gigantic tax relief for children in 2021, but the Republicans undid that,” Davis recalled. “A new bill does not do nearly as much, so we need to do more.”
The U.S also needs “good schools and good parenting,” Davis said. “I am an advocate for young parents, and we need to help them be effective, especially in the early stages of life. Children learn the way individuals think from those around them. If we can stem the way individuals think by investing in them, that would help tremendously.”
Davis’s law enforcement approach emphasizes “good training and the creation of a value system that is constructive rather than destructive.”
As a member of the Health Subcommittee, he said healthcare access and affordability can be improved with a single-payer system.
“Even with that, we still have a lot of holes in the system,” Davis said. He noted efforts through the Affordable Care Act, which he said he helped author, put emphasis on home visits as well as child and maternal care.
Funding education requires commitment to early child learning as well as K-8 programs, Davis noted.
Student loan reduction for college tuition costs “is still something we are working on,” he said. He advocates for trade schools and other training to assist those who would be better served served in pursuing careers that do not require college degrees.
For more information about Davis, go to www.dannykdavis.com.
Kouri Marshall grew up in Central Illinois and earned an undergraduate degree in communications and philosophy from Eureka College. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he worked for Barack Obama as the District of Columbia director. In 2015, he was appointed as executive director of Democratic GAIN, a progressive political association with 42,000 members. He heads ChiGivesBack, which began as a toy drive and now generates $2.5 million in resources for low-income families.
Addressing the migrant issue means recognizing that “immigrants have been an integral part of our history,” he said. Marshall favors “significantly” increasing the budget to add border staff and deploying humanitarian aid organizations such as AmeriCorps to supplement the effort. He stressed the importance of strengthening the nation’s “front door” so that it is safer and more humanitarian than current conditions.
“We need to look at the metrics, how we categorize those who are crossing the border,” especially motivation and home country condition, Marshall said.
Addressing crime, Marshall focused on guns, mental health, housing, and policing.
“I’m a strong believer that we have a right to bear arms,” Marshall said. “But there is no reason for AR-15s on our streets that can spray bullets through walls, putting many people in danger. Those types of weapons need to be taken off the street. I also believe that Congress can do more to fund mental health services. It’s clear this is a major contributing factor in criminal behavior.”
Marshall said working toward more affordable housing and supporting those who experience homelessness are important parts of his efforts.
Policing needs to be more community focused, for example.
“Finding ways for police to positively engage with communities is important,” he said, noting racial bias must be eliminated.
For Marshall, healthcare access and affordability require expanding the ACA, protecting a woman’s right to choose, and addressing the rate of Black mortality.
“Physicians need to listen to what women are saying about their bodies,” he said. “Prescription costs are too high, and diabetes and high blood pressure is a major issue in the district. We also need to address expanding access to healthy food.”
Funding education means focusing on early childhood education.
“That was a distinguishing factor in my life,” Marshall said. “I always had that foundation to build on. We need to invest in universal pre-kindergarten education.”
Marshall also supports expanding mentoring programs, apprenticeship programs, and access to Pell Grants along with providing additional affordable loan programs.
For more information about Marshall, go to www.khouriforcongress.com.
Editor’s note: William S. Bike also contributed to this article.